Columns

From the category archives: Opinions

MARK PICKUP

I keep a bust of Ludwig van Beethoven on the mantle above the fireplace in my home. It reminds me of the human capacity to overcome adversity to achieve great things. When I doubt myself in my own acquired disability of multiple sclerosis, I listen to Beethoven particularly his Ninth Symphony written in near-total deafness but at the peak of his creative power His Ninth Symphony exemplifies a triumph of human spirit over adversity, sustained by a spark of God's love in a silent world. Although Beethoven used Schiller's Ode to Joy, there is a spirituality or mystical quality to Beethoven's Ninth.

MARK PICKUP

When I met Moira (not her real name) she was completely broken-hearted. As the old song says, "I can tell by your eyes, you've probably been crying forever." That was Moira. The 42-year-old mother had developed severe chronic progressive multiple sclerosis which put her into a wheelchair within a year of her diagnosis. Moira's husband left her, and their only daughter went with him.

MARK PICKUP

I want to address the rhetoric used by people who promote euthanasia and assisted suicide. Those who control language control public discourse and set agendas that dictate behaviour that might not be acceptable in other contexts. It is a confusing time. The culture in which we live is telling the incurably ill and severely disabled they have a right to assisted suicide while the healthy population deserves suicide prevention.

MARK PICKUP

On the last Sunday of 2013, the second Mass reading is from Colossians. St. Paul's instructions to God's people of the first century are instructive to Christians of the 21st century. "Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience." He says we are to bear with one another and forgive each other just as Christ forgives us.

MARK PICKUP

In the First Reading for the Dec. 8 Mass we read from Isaiah 11: "The wolf will live with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the kid, The calf and the lion and fatling together, And a little child shall lead them."

MARK PICKUP

Throughout the years, numerous people tried to lure me down east from Western Canada. It stroked my inflated ego and flattered my false sense of self-importance. Perhaps the most tempting I remember was being offered a job to host a national TV series the CBC was planning in 1990 about issues surrounding disabilities that showcased the lives of Canadians with physical and mental challenges.

MARK PICKUP

My wife LaRee and I were asked to address a conference about critical life issues sponsored by the Diocese of Metuchen, N.J. They wanted us to speak about a Christian perspective on suffering, disability and end-of-life care. It is a timely topic because New Jersey is considering a law to allow assisted suicide.

MARK PICKUP

It was a terrible accident. Thomas Wedman, age six, was walking to school at St. Albert's École Marie Poburan, a French immersion Catholic elementary school. While crossing a street, the Grade 2 student was accidentally run over by a school bus filled with children. Thomas died.

MARK PICKUP

All violence begins in the human heart. All war has its root in inner violence. A person who is at war with himself will soon cause strife for those around him. Whether in families or nation against nation, inner violence needs an object for its outward expression. It only stands to reason.